Planned J.M. Patterson Experimental Laboratories

The newly remodeled FPE venue located on the third floor of the JM Patterson Building provides expansive office space, a modern classroom, a state of the art computer laboratory, and sophisticated experimental laboratories. Brief descriptions of these spaces are provided below and naming opportunities are indicated where available.

OFFICE SPACE - The main office space consists of 10 faculty offices, a business office suite, as well as student offices and other focused use spaces.

The Schirmer Engineering Conference Room (700 sq ft, seats 48) provides a large space for meetings, presentation, and workshops. The conference room will feature state of the art computerized audio/video equipment.

The Sprinkler Connection lounge area sponsored by Strickland Fire Protection is centrally located in the main office space. It provides a gathering point for faculty, staff, and students to relax and unwind.

The Fire Protection Engineering Alumni Lounge (600 sq ft, seats 20) is made possible by generous donations from over 80 alumni. The lounge provides a relaxed environment for students to meet, socialize, and study. This space is also useful for FPE student group meetings, mentoring and recruitment activities.

A large reception area with hardwood floors and comfortable seating provides a pleasing first impression for visitors to the FPE department. [Naming Opportunity: $50,000].

A small library is located within the main office for convenient access to fire codes, standards, and references. [Naming Opportunity: $20,000]

A large graduate office (1500 sq ft) area is connected to the main office. This space contains seven graduate student clusters, each seating 5 students and one cluster for visiting scholars. The graduate office provides space for over 40 researchers. [Naming Opportunity: $150,000 or $20,000 per cluster].

CLASSROOM
The Prof. John L. Bryan Classroom (700 sq ft, seats 48), sponsored by Code Consultants, Inc., provides a modern teaching environment with state of the art computerized audio/visual equipment. This classroom is conveniently located adjacent to the FPE office space encouraging greater interaction between students and faculty.

COMPUTER LABORATORIES
The UL Fire Modeling Laboratory, sponsored by Underwriters Laboratory Inc., will feature a set of approximately 10 state-of-the-art Windows desktop computers for general-purpose use, a separate rack of approximately 10 additional Windows computers, a printer, and a projector for classroom instruction. The principal new feature in the ULFM Laboratory is the computer rack where processors will be assembled in a high-speed network compatible with parallel computing applications.

An example of a parallel software used in the FPE community is the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). FDS is used heavily by both students and faculty in the FPE Department, and is the principal simulation software adopted in the Graduate-level Advanced Fire Modeling course as well as the Undergraduate-level modeling course. Since computer computations have become an integral part of these courses, the new computers will provide much needed enhanced computing capabilities to individual undergraduate and graduate research projects.

EXPERIMENTAL LABORATORIES - Four large experimental laboratories and three smaller flexible facilities total 4000 square feet of the J.M. Patterson Building. These labs will be used for research, teaching, and demonstrations. The new labs place special emphasis on personnel safety and health while expanding research and education capabilities.

The Koffel and Associates Fire Assessment and Standards Laboratory (600 square feet) will provide a modern and safe environment for introducing Fire Protection Engineering students to the latest methods in fire assessment. This lab will have state-of-the art equipment with which students will learn experiment design and set-up and computer-based interrogation of fire phenomena. The laboratory will house two modern ASTM certified fire test apparatuses: the Cone Calorimeter and the Lateral Ignition and Flame Spread (LIFT) stand for conducting the ASTM E1354 (Standard Test Method for Heat and Visible Smoke Release Rates and Products Using an Oxygen Consumption Calorimeter) and ASTM E1321 (Standard Test Method for Determining Material Ignition and Flame Spread Properties) standard tests, respectively. These facilities represent two of the most sophisticated standard tests available and will provide our students with excellent examples of standardized fire assessment methods. Several smaller ASTM fire test standards for characterizing the flammability of liquid fuels and fabrics will also be acquired.

The RJA Fire Laboratory (1200 square feet) sponsored by Rolf Jensen & Associates will contain three hoods for fire tests. One will be 12 feet by 12 feet and will allow fires of up to one megawatt. The other hoods are intended for fires of up to 250 kilowatts. This laboratory will be used for studying fire dynamics at medium and small scales. Scale modeling is typically employed to simulate large fires using smaller fires. The hoods will be instrumented for oxygen consumption calorimetry, allowing for measurement of heat release rate. Gas analysis including CO, CO2, and unburned hydrocarbons, will be incorporated in the hoods. The laboratory will employ load cells to quantify specimen consumption rates. The hoods will also be equipped with instrumentation to allow for the evaluation of smoke dispersion and detector performance in model compartments.

The Dr. Harry E. Hickey Suppression Laboratory sponsored by Hughes Associates (1100 square feet) will be used to characterize the performance of water-based suppression systems including activation, atomization, dispersion, and fire suppression. Research in this lab will support model development for predicting spray characteristics from sprinklers and water-mist nozzles. These models will be useful for injector design and computational fluid dynamics analysis of suppression performance. The laboratory will also be used to evaluate the performance of new suppression technologies including foams, surfactant additives, and alternative suppressants. Measurements in this laboratory will be conducted with the most sophisticated spray diagnostics available including laser based instrumentation to measure drop size, spray distribution, and other spray quantities.

The Fire Diagnostics Laboratory (1100 square feet) will be used for many experimental activities that can be performed outside of the other three laboratories. This lab will house a salt-water facility, a 6 foot by 12 foot vibration-isolated optical breadboard, and the technician’s office. [Naming Opportunity: $100,000]

The East Coast Fire Protection Laboratory Facility, EBL Fire Engineering Laboratory Facility, and The James and Pamela Boyer Laboratory Facility sponsored by BFPE International (100 sq ft each) provide modular workstations for small focused research projects. These workstations have small hoods, to accommodate flames of up to 5 kilowatts, optical breadboards, personal computers, and digital acquisition systems. These facilities will allow tests in darkened conditions and without air currents arising from heating ventilation and air conditioning systems. The workstations will support laser and optics diagnostics, measurements in laminar flames, sensor development, undergraduate projects, and other experiments.